I’ve had ‘green tendencies’ for a long time. I don’t really know when it started. When I was young my Dad was a greengrocer, so I was always used to eating plenty of fruit and veg - although sometimes that was the stuff that wouldn’t last the weekend in the shop, so we’d eat our way through mountains of strawberries at a time. It left me with a legacy of knowing my apples and a yearning for the return of seasonal food. I despise waste, so recycling was something that came early and easy. Even at the shop, we would flatten cardboard boxes which were collected separately from the main rubbish.

Glass, paper, drinks cans they were the first. Then there were always used postage stamps. I blame Blue Peter for that. Somewhere in my head, it started to occur to me that if a thing was possibly of use to another person or organisation then I shouldn’t throw it away. Silver foil – didn’t boy scouts use to collect that? It seems Kingston council doesn’t but our surrounding boroughs do. I had to give rather a large bag of foil to a lady who works in Leatherhead so she could take it there. The first days of plastics recycling were a bit of a revolution. You used to be able to take your plastics to The Tip at Villiers Road and put it into different skips according to the type of plastic (1, 2 or 3). Then it became a single skip. Now plastics are included in doorstep recycling collections but you’re supposedly limited as to what you can put in your green crate, even though many more are recyclable. Doorstep recycling is a great idea, making it as easy as possible for people. You can’t put in your cardboard though. Do you realise how much cardboard you throw out in a week? Try not putting it in the bin and see.

Yet, somewhere along the cycle path, I have turned into a bit of a green crusader. I’ve had rows at work for turning off the photocopier when one last person wanted to use it (and had been hiding until I had done that awful thing of knowing where the off button was). I can’t stop myself turning off monitors on the desks of people already homeward bound. I always know where the light switches are and even use them. Sitting here at my desk at home, the bits of paper are already used on one side, rejected drafts etc from tedious reports at work still serving a purpose.

But. But. I’m normal. Surely? Why, don’t you worry about waste? We live on a planet, all of us together with only a certain amount of resources to go around. Isn’t it our responsibility to make sure we make the most of it all? Not just for us, in our comfy homes in south west London and Surrey, but for people all over the globe? You might not think what you do here makes any difference at all in Africa or India but, drop a stone in a pond and the ripples go a long way.

What single new thing are you going to do this week to help our environment?